Khuth, of Danbury, is charged with first-degree assault and three related offenses in the August 2004 attack of
Kyle Coney
and Tim LePak, college students from Newtown.

Coney had teeth knocked loose during the attack. LePak fared much worse - the beating left him in a coma for two weeks. He was attached to a feeding tube for a time and ate liquid meals pumped into his wired jaw through a syringe, prosecutor

Related Stories

David Shannon
told jurors Tuesday. LePak, 19 at the time of the attack, still suffers from short-term memory loss.

In his closing argument, Shannon said the evidence points to Khuth as the leader of the group attack on Coney and LePak.

"He (Khuth) kicked him and punched (LePak) while he was down, while he was unconscious," Shannon said. "He left him there lying in a pool of blood. Then he went for a ride."

The prosecution alleges that Khuth was riding in a car with three friends - Warner Nunez,
Amy Altberg
and Thomas "TJ" Stick - in downtown Danbury the night of Aug. 2, 2004. Someone from the car allegedly threw a beer can at an open-top Jeep that Coney was driving and LePak was riding in.

Khuth's lawyer said someone from the Jeep then threw a water bottle back at the car, hitting Khuth, 19 at the time of the incident, in the head. Prosecutors allege that Khuth felt "dissed."

Prosecutors allege Khuth and his friends followed the Jeep, which turned into an alley off White Street in downtown Danbury and was cornered by a truck.

Coney and LePak were attacked, authorities said. LePak was reportedly yanked out of the Jeep, punched, kicked and hit in the head with a garbage can.

After the attackers fled, Coney walked to a diner, pleading for help. Shannon said the first officer found LePak in a pool of blood, unconscious. The only sounds coming from his body was blood gurgling in his throat, Shannon said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors allege the group used credit cards they took from the victims to buy cigarettes and gas.

It took police a year to make arrests in the case. The case broke open when the victims' families offered a reward. Some of Khuth's friends started talking to police, prosecutors said.

In his closing argument, Shannon showed the jurors excerpts from a letter Khuth allegedly wrote from jail to friends. Shannon said in some of the letters, Khuth attempted to influence what his friends should say to police.

"They don't have print on everybody, only statement," one of the letters stated, apparently referring to a fingerprint. "If they would have print I would have been the first going down."

Shannon said the letters and testimony during the trial proves Khuth was the leader and could have stopped the violence.

However, Khuth's lawyer,
Jeffrey Beck
, told jurors there is not enough evidence to convict his client. Beck said the letters were authored by a frightened 19-year-old man facing 14 years in prison.

He described his client as a product of the inner-city who uses language in his letters that may have been shocking to some but were not an admission of guilt.

"He was scared," Beck told jurors. "You can't use these letters to make this kid the criminal of the century." Beck said his client struck LePak once, but there is no evidence the blow led to his injuries. "It doesn't add up. There is reasonable doubt."

Jurors started deliberating the case Tuesday afternoon.

Dennis LePak
, father of one of the victims, hopes for a conviction. "I will say that I am cautiously optimistic," he said.

The three other people arrested for the attack have trials pending in Danbury.